Gabriel was campaigning in the city of Salzgitter when he was approached by a small, but loud, group of neo-Nazi protesters. They insulted and cursed at him according to accounts in German media, and can be heard calling Gabriel a “traitor,” and shouting, “Your father loved his country. What are you doing destroying it?”

The SPD leader has on severaloccasions described his late father as a Nazi, and talked about how he cut all ties with him. In June, Gabriel compared the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party to the Nazis. “Everything that they are saying, I’ve already heard — just to be clear — from my own father, who was a Nazi to his last breath,” he said at the time.

The SPD confirmed last Friday's incident took place, and said Gabriel had been accosted by a group of violent neo-Nazis on the margins of an election campaign event.

Alberto Nardelli is Europe editor for BuzzFeed News and is based in London.